There is considerable interest in measuring the usage of media accessed by an audience to provide market information to advertisers, media distributors and the like.
In the past there were relatively few alternatives for distributing media, such as analog radio and television, analog recordings, newspapers and magazines and relatively few media producers and distributors. Moreover, the marketplace for media distributed via one technology was distinct from the marketplace for media distributed in a different manner. The radio and television industries, for example, had their distinctly different media content and delivery methodologies. Recorded media was distributed and reproduced in distinctly different ways, although the content was often adapted for radio or television distribution.
Audience measurement has evolved in a similar manner tracking the market segmentation of the media distribution industry. Generally, audience measurement data has been gathered, processed and reported separately for each media distribution market segment
The development of techniques to efficiently process, store and communicate digital data has enabled numerous producers and distributors of media to enter the marketplace. Users of media now have a great many choices which did not exist only a few years ago. Established producers and distributors have responded with their own efforts to provide media in digital form to users. This trend is enhanced with each improvement in digital processing, storage and communications.
A result of these developments is a convergence of media distribution within the digital realm, especially through distribution via the Internet. Media is thus available to users not only through traditional distribution channels, but also via alternative digital communication pathways. For example, many radio stations now provide their programming via the Internet as well as over the air.
The emergence of multiple, overlapping media distribution pathways, as well as the wide variety of available user systems (e.g. PC's, PDA's, portable CD players, Internet, appliances, TV, radio, etc.) for accessing media, has greatly complicated the task of measuring media audiences. The development of commercially-viable techniques for encoding audio data with audience measurement data provides a crucial tool for measuring media usage across multiple media distribution pathways and user systems. Most notable among these techniques is the CBET methodology developed by Arbitron Inc., which is already providing useful audience estimates to numerous media distributors and advertisers.
However, the bandwidth for data encoded in audio is limited by the needs to maintaining inaudibility of the codes while ensuring that they are reliably detectable. Nevertheless, today more data is required for audience measurement than ever before. Not only is it necessary to detect the source of the data, but also to detect how it was distributed (e.g., over-the-air vs. Internet) and how it was reproduced (e.g. by a conventional radio, PC, etc., as well as the player software employed).
Accordingly, it is desired to provide data gathering techniques for audience measurement data capable of measuring media usage across multiple distribution paths and user systems.
It is also desired to provide such data gathering techniques which are likely to be adaptable to future media distribution paths and user systems which are presently unknown.